American Horror Story - Seasons 1-3 Review

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**A note on my notes: This review is spoiler free.**

Over the past two weeks, I've binge watched American Horror Story, and I'm not ashamed to say I've finished all three seasons. It's not my favourite television show of all time. In fact, it's not even close. It would never make my top five, probably not even my top ten, but I did really enjoy this show.

So if you've never heard of American Horror Story, each season follows a completely different set of characters that are some how affected by something supernatural. The seasons aren't related at all, so if you are most attracted to season three or don't want to watch season two, it doesn't matter! Also, if you're worried about the show being scary, it's really not. Once you get past the opening credits, the show isn't scary at all.

Season One
This season follows a married couple and their teenage daughter who have just moved into what they hope is their dream house. Unfortunately for them, it turns out to be haunted. This is my least favourite season out of the three; however, I still enjoyed it. I think the characters were complex and had issues they were working through that were somewhat believable (apart from the haunted house thing). Just past halfway though, I did think the plot started to become a little bit repetitive, but I still enjoyed it. Overall, I did enjoy this season, though it isn't really anything special.

Season Two
In the second season, we move to an asylum. I really enjoyed this season, and I think the characters in this season were the best out of all three. They were really well developed, and their development wasn't rushed at all, which in a television show is compelling because you can become more invested in the characters. This season switches between between present day, where the asylum is shut down and abandoned, and the past, where the asylum is running. I didn't really like this aspect of it, because the present day events wasn't really relevant to the overall plot, apart from right at the very end of the season. There is some sort of supernatural/alien aspect to this season which I also didn't like because it wasn't developed enough. Overall though, I thought this season was a lot better than the first, and I liked it a lot.

Season Three
The final season follows a coven of witches. While the characters in this season weren't as developed as they were in the second one, they were still really interesting. If this show was a book, it would definitely be in the YA section because the characters are sassy teenage girls, which was a nice change from the crazed mental patients from season two. Emma Roberts plays one of the witches and I think she did an incredible job! I think the plot for this series was a bit stagnant at times, but I did really enjoy it. I think the ending about the next Supreme was very predictable, but was still a fantastic ending to the season.

Like I said before, I did enjoy this show, but I didn't love it. I will probably continue on with the other seasons as they're released, but I'm not excited enough for them to watch them as they come out weekly and will probably watch the entire season like I did this time.

You can follow me on Twitter here.

You can watch American Horror Story here.

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell - Review

**A note of my notes: This review is spoiler free. Please remember that this is my opinion of the book and that not everyone will agree with me.**

Time to fangirl about Fangirl.

I don't even know where to begin. I flew through this book and I can now say that it's definitely one of my all-time favourite novels and has helped to cement Rainbow Rowell as one of my favourite authors.

Summary
Fangirl follows Cath and her twin sister Wren as they start their Freshmen year at college. After sharing a room their entire lives, Wren decides that she wants to become more independent from Cath and doesn't want to be roommates, so Cath is left to fend for herself. The story follows Cath as she tires to find her feet in a completely new world and struggles to find the balance between her old life and the new one unfolding right in front of her.

The Good Excellent 
The characters in the novel are fantastic. Rowell developed them perfectly and they each had their own unique quirks and habits that made their voices really distinguishable. The thing I loved the most about the characters was that they were real; each of them were familiar in so many ways which made it easier for me to identify to the story.
The plot moves along at a good pace; there are no boring parts throughout the entire story. The situations that the characters are put in are also extremely realistic and really spoke to my heart because a lot of them were things that I've been through during my first year at university.
Cath writes fanfiction, and at the end of every chapter was an except from either Cath's writing or from the original world that Cath writes in. I loved these excepts, because I found that they were really relevant to the events that had just occurred in the chapter. Also, if you've grown up with Harry Potter, then you will absolutely adore the elements of Simon Snow in this novel.

The Bad Not-As-Good
I had almost no problems with this book, in fact, only two. The first being that I wish the book ended a little later than it did, or that there was an epilogue just so we could see where the characters were at after or during the Summer and especially what happens with Cath's fanfiction novel.
The other thing that I didn't like was the reference to Harry Potter about halfway through the book. The whole time, the Simon Snow series is paralleling Harry Potter, and then referencing actual Harry Potter made me feel very confused. I wish that the reference to Harry Potter wasn't there at all.

The Recommendation
I recommend this book to everyone, but I think you'll particularly enjoy it if you're about to start university. If you grew up reading Harry Potter, then I would doubly recommend this book to you, because you'll really understand the emotions Cath feels for the Simon Snow series. Fangirl is a fun story that's super engaging and easy to read, so if you're looking for a book like that, read this one.

Delirium Pilot Review

**A note of my notes: This is my review of the pilot television adaptation for the Delirium book series by Lauren Oliver. You may not necessarily agree with my review, and that's okay. Be respectful.**

The Delirium trilogy was originally written by Lauren Oliver and was picked up by Fox for a television series; however, the show was dropped after the pilot was made.

The novels follow a seventeen year old girl, called Lena Haloway, who lives in a dystopian future where love has been classed as a curable disease. At the age of eighteen, people receive the antidote to love and from that point forward they are unable to love another person. After looking forward to being cured her entire life, Lena finds herself showing symptoms of the disease only weeks before her eighteenth birthday.

The pilot episode was created in an interesting way, with the events from the entire first book as one episode. Like any dystopian novel, the first book has a lot of world building, which can be shown a lot easier and faster through a visual medium like a television show; however, a large premise of the narrative is a love story, so I was a little worried that the emotional connection between certain characters would be rushed.

And that's exactly what happened. The chemistry between the actors was there, but not enough time was given for Lena to form a believable connection to Alex. In the books, it is clear that Lena's emotions develop over a sustained period of time, yet in the pilot episode, Lena falls in love with Alex in a matter of minutes.

The love story was very poorly done. There were so many ways that could have made the option of having the entirety of book one as the pilot episode more realistic, and I was extremely disappointed. When using a visual medium, there are so many interesting ways to tell a love story, like flashbacks and montages of events that skip over several years. I just feel like not enough time was given to the development of the character's emotions, which was something that could have been done properly in so many ways.

The love story wasn't the only thing that was rushed. There were many scenes from the books that were emotionally huge, and while some of these were left out of the pilot, one of the most heartbreaking scenes was included. The prison scene. That scene in the novels was so incredibly depressing and heartbreaking, but in the episode it lasted for only a minute or so. Even then, we didn't really care much about Lena's parents because they were given hardly any time to feature in the episode at all. 

I didn't like the casting choice for Hannah, and I thought Hannah's character left a lot to be desired. The other casting choices, however, I thought were really appropriate and were played well.

The other thing I found incredibly disappointing with the pilot was the lack of new content. There were so many opportunities for some more back-story to be released and talked about, but there was nothing. The book series has so many holes: who created the cure? what was the original public opinion on the cure? what happened leading up to the creation of the cure? what's it like in the other cities and countries? what really happened with Lena's parents? how did the resistance start? and so on, yet the show dealt with none of these questions.

The one thing I did enjoy was being able to see the perspective of other characters. It was interesting to see Julian's house and his relationship with his parents from his point of view, rather than Lena's. I also enjoyed the scenes with Julian's father and his ex-girlfriend from before he was cured, because I thought that was a really interesting dynamic to add. However, the topic wasn't dealt with in more depth, and I feel like it would have been dealt with in future episodes.

Overall, I wasn't very impressed with the show. I thought it was rushed unnecessarily and there were so many flaws it made me irritated. While I did enjoy the multiple perspectives and Emma Robert's performance, I was disappointed in so many aspects of the show I doubt I would have continued with the series if it wasn't dropped. I wouldn't really recommend anyone who hasn't read the first book to watch the episode.

You can see the trailer for the series here.

You can find out more about Lauren Oliver's series here.

You can follow me on Twitter here.

Body Image and Respect

Body image is a tricky topic. Trying to express your opinion is like playing Russian Roulette with a gun 100% filled with bullets: no matter what you say, people are going to shoot you for it (obviously with their words, not their actual guns because this isn't America). Regardless of where you stand on the matter of body image, you will be shot down, accused and harassed for your opinions. Which is why most people say nothing at all.

Bindi Irwin, on the other hand, spoke out about this matter in a recent interview. This is what she had this to say:

"I'm a big advocate for young girls dressing their age."

"I mean, for me, I look around at a lot of young girls that are my age and they're always trying to dress older. Whether it's wearing revealing clothes or hardly wearing any clothes at all, I feel really bad for them. ..."

"I almost wish I could tell young girls, 'look, in 10 years when you look back at yourself, you'll cringe honey, honestly' ..."

"A lot of times I want to grab these girls and say 'look ... in 10 years you'll regret this. Just dress who you are. Don't try so hard. A pair of jeans and a T-shirt is just as gorgeous and even makes you look classier."

While I do admire her courage, I don't admire her maturity, because I don't think this shows it. Don't get me wrong, I respect her and her right to this opinion, and I definitely respect her speaking out about it. What I don't approve of is the way that Bindi has insinuated that her fashion sense and the way she dresses is better, or right, and that if you don't have the same clothing instincts that she has, you're wrong. Whether she actually believes this or not is irrelevant, because as a celebrity, what you say will always be taken out of the context of your own thoughts. And in this instance, the way that Bindi has phrased her statements says exactly that.

The body image dilemma isn't a social media virgin, and there isn't really anything new to be added to the pile of discarded arguments. But recently, the stance on body image has been to embrace your body regardless of your size, and to be comfortable in your own skin. You're beautiful no matter your size.

But you can't show the world that beauty. You must cover it up, because instead of teaching people to respect others no matter what they wear, we're teaching them that if they're wearing 'provocative' clothing, they deserve to be looked down upon.

You're beautiful no matter your size. But only if you disregard your own sense of comfort in your body and what you're wearing so that others may feel more comfortable around you. 


Now, I'm not suggesting that young girls should strive to dress 'older than their age'. What I am suggesting is that they have the right to choose to dress however they want. Just because one person feels comfortable in jeans and a T-shirt doesn't mean that everyone else is uncomfortable in low-cut shirts and mini skirts. The feeling of comfort isn't universal, and no one has the right to dictate what others are comfortable with. If someone else's clothing makes you uncomfortable, that's okay. You're allowed to feel like that. But you're not allowed to tell them that they're wrong and you're right because you disagree.

Another blog post that saw loads of media attention was written by a teenage girl on her sister's blog just over a month ago. The girl was kicked out of her prom due to the impure thoughts her dress allowed the men and boys to have. The link to the original post can be found at the end of the post, and I'd definitely recommend reading it; she speaks out against slut-shaming and treating men like they're monsters with no self-control.

My point is, it shouldn't matter what a girl (or boy, for that matter), is wearing. What should matter is that you have the ability to respect that person regardless of their clothing choices, and that whether they're showing no skin or are completely naked, it shouldn't make you think any differently of them. As a society and culture, we should be educating our children in respect, not oppression, and that goes for every situation. What someone is wearing shouldn't have an effect on anyone but the individual.

Now you can argue that people who don't dress modestly aren't showing self-respect, and if you think that, good for you. I personally, however, feel that you should be able to flaunt the fact that your comfortable in your body by wearing whatever the hell you want, whether that means you stick to jeans and T-shirts like Bindi suggests, or you take a page out of Rhianna's book and rock a completely see-through dress and g-string. Because as a decent human being, I respect your freedom to wear what you like, and I have enough self-control to not let your fashion sense impact my opinion of you.

Proclaiming that someone is a slut and reasoning that their clothing provoked you to say such a thing reflects poorly on yourself. Such statements speak more to your lack of self-control than to said girl's sexual status, which by the way, is none of anyone else's business in the first place (which is a topic for a whole new post).

To wrap this up, I want to reiterate that I don't think Bindi Irwin is a bad person for expressing an opinion she has a right to have, nor do I claim that her opinion is any less valuable than my own, and that goes for anyone who is reading reading. At the same time, I expect the same level of tolerance from everyone else for my opinion, which can be summed up like this:

Respect is a right, not a privilege for people who follow the same moral code as yourself. 

In Bindi's own words, "just dress who you are."

You can read the original interview with Bindi Irwin here.  

You can read the original blog post here. 

You can follow me on Twitter here.

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell - Review

**A note on my notes: This review is spoiler free. If you've read the book and disagree with me, I don't care.**

I loved this book! I went into this book as my rebound right after finishing City of Heavenly Fire, which would normally mean I wouldn't give it a fair chance. But I flew through it and finished it in just over a day.

The novel follows two teenagers who are completely different people. Eleanor, who's somewhat new to the town, has crazy red hair, is overweight and loves listening to her music. Park loves comic books and despite living in the town his entire life, still doesn't really fit in. The pair meet on the school bus and after a while, they begin to form an unlikely relationship. As their stories progress, we see how they grow and change as people and how the rest of their lives impact on their friendship.

Young Adult Contemporary isn't my favourite genre because I find that authors try and comment on ideas and social situations that aren't really relevant to their lives so they get it wrong. And let's be honest, teenagers find other teenagers complicated, so trying to create realistic teenage characters when you're no longer a teenager is a mammoth task. However, I think that Rowell managed to successfully steer clear of the typical clichés of the genre and produced characters and a plot that was very believable. The novel deals with situations that are relevant to many teenager's lives today, such as bullying and unstable families.

The story is told through the dual perspectives of both Eleanor and Park. Normally, I am not a fan of dual perspectives because it's hard to really distinguish the character's sense of voice. However, I think that Rowell wrote the two characters parts beautifully. It was easy to tell the difference between the two perspectives unlike other books (Allegiant, anyone?) and it really enhanced the way the story was told.

The characters were just beautiful. They seriously could have been real people, that's how realistic this story felt to me. Their thoughts and reactions to their situations were believable and the way that Rowell expressed each character's opinions was spot on.

Overall, I loved this book. It was beautiful. If you're looking for a fun, easy but emotional read, I would definitely recommend this book to you. If you're like me and you tend to stay away from romantic contemporary novels, I would also recommend this book to you.

"Eleanor was right. She never looked nice. She looked like art, and art wasn't supposed to look nice. It was supposed to make you feel something."

City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare - Booktalk

**A note of my notes: If you haven't read this book, or the Infernal Devices trilogy, you're going to be spoiled. So don't be silly. Also, this is more of a rant of my feelings, not so much a review. If you want a review: it's good, read it.**

Words cannot even describe how much this book made me feel. Seriously, I'm sitting down to write this review right after I've finished reading the book - my face is still wet with tears - and I just don't even know where to start.

The beginning of this book introduces a whole heap of new characters of the Carstairs and Blackthorn variety. I fell in love with all the children instantly; they all had really distinct personalities, yet were all so similar in their short-lived sense of innocence and inexperience. I saw the name Carstairs and I got so excited, and then Emma was introduced and she was just awesome! I loved her strength and independence and her relationship with Julian was written perfectly. Although, there were some aspects of their characters that I thought were too old for their ages and I kept picturing them as a lot older than twelve in my head, but I'm not complaining because I loved them both. I also loved the twins, Livvy and Ty, because they were so close and had their own special connection that couldn't be matched by anyone else, which I thought was really nice.

All of that stuff, basically the entire prologue and all the other parts with Emma and Julian, has made me so excited for The Dark Artifices series because I'm really interested to see how their story pans out and whether they start to date or become parabati. Their chemistry is so complicated already and they're only twelve years old. Hectic.

So we move right along to Jace and Jordan trying to meditate outside. When Jace said weapons bring him peace, I laughed so much. I love the way the Clare implements some humour into her books, because she often is dealing with some pretty dark content, yet she always finds time for the odd sarcastic comment and funny moments.

When Simon was kidnapped, I hated Maureen so much. I already hated her because she was crazy, but when she kidnapped Simon and put him in those tights, I was so frustrated by her. Her immaturity and nativity and just plain stupidity was so frustrating, so I was extremely happy when Maia killed her later on.

Maia really stepped up in this book, and she was already on such a high level. Throughout her life, Maia had been through a lot and was already a really strong character. So they way she dealt with Jordan's death and didn't let it stop her from saving the world was really admirable. I was a little mystified as to why she was breaking up with Jordan though; I mean I know he had treated her like rubbish before, but I though she was past that and they were going well... There wasn't really much foreshadowing of their relationship breakdown, but I suppose that was kind of the point; Maia was keeping it all hidden.

So Jordan's death... I was shocked. When we went to the Praetor and saw the destruction, I was devastated; Sebastian and his stupid Endarkened warriors had wiped out an entire community of werewolves that were so committed to making things easier for people who were struggling. And that was such a shock (good planning by Sebastian though, trying to get the Downworlders to turn against the Shadowhunters), and then Jordan is killed. I don't know how else to describe it other than saying I was shocked because there was so much death in that section! And then I felt so sorry for Maia, who not only just watched her boyfriend die and discovered the bodies of her own kind dead, but then had to play messenger for Sebastian and tell her story over and over again.

When Sebastian was in the Seelie Court with the Seelie Queen, I wasn't as surprised as I know other people were when they read it. The Queen has sided with Sebastian before, and I don't blame her for feeling like she had chosen the winning side for her people. But at the same time, I thought she would have been smart enough to realise that Sebastian was just using her, and that he would have killed her and all the Fair Folk when it suited him anyway. I was frustrated because if the Fair Folk had sided with the Shadowhunters in the first place, defeating Sebastian would have been much easier. And the Queen is just so manipulative and annoying because she tricks everyone.

The first huge battle scene at the Citadel of the Iron Sisters was frustrating for me. Again, the Clave just didn't listen to Clary and Jace, despite them being the only people who really understood the entire situation. The Clave was just too proud and arrogant and stubborn and if they had just listened, then they wouldn't have lost so many of their own. Seriously, how many times does the Clave have to make the same mistake before they realise? The same thing frustrated me in the end, when the Clave was voting on what to do with the Fair Folk, and Magnus said they were being too harsh and that this would lead to another war, but no. The Clave can't think of the future, they can only think of right now. And no, they can't see past Helen and Mark's bloodlines to see how loyal Helen has been. They're just stupid. People are stupid. The Clave are idiots.

I thought Edom was described nicely, well, as nicely as a barren and ugly dessert can be described. Clare wrote the scenes well so that the realm could be visualised easily, which was important because it was a completely new setting for the series. Seeing how the realm was actually a parallel world to the one described in the books was an interesting twist, which I really enjoyed.

The Clace sex seen. I don't even need to say anything else about it. Clace. Finally. But also, did Jace seriously bring a condom into the demon realms? Really, Jace? But good job, Clare, for promoting safe sex!

Clary killing Sebastian was a good way for Sebastian to die. We all knew he had to, right? Ever since we found out he had demon blood in his body, we knew he had to die in order to solve all the problems he had created. But him turning back into Jonathan... I was not expecting that! And I think it worked really well - it was a nice ending without being cheesy or too neat.

Finally finding out who Magnus' father was was interesting. I'm so glad that Magnus didn't die, because he's been alive for so long and I really hope that he's an important character in The Dark Artifices series like he was in this one and The Infernal Devices trilogy. But Simon... I was devastated when he volunteered. Tears literally were pouring down my face as I read that section. His memories... I didn't think that Clary or even Izzy would be able to take it - not after everything they've both been through. I thought that would have broken them.

And while it was incredibly depressing and I was hoping Magnus was able to fix it somehow, I was annoyed when Clare allowed Magnus to let Simon remember things. I thought that ending was too clean. Seriously, how could a Prince of Hell not be powerful enough to wipe all the memories... Simon shouldn't have been able to have any flashes at all, and Magnus definitely shouldn't have the power to bring back Simon's memory like that. But I was happy that Clary and Izzy could start to rebuild their lives in that regard with a little bit of closure. I just think that the pain and torment Clare caused by removing Simon's memories would have been more effective if it was forever.

Seeing Magnus and Alec finally make up and get back together was great. I was so proud of Alec when Magnus offered himself to Alec and Alec said no, you need to change first. I thought that would have taken so much maturity from him and I was so proud because he's really grown a lot over the course of the series, even though it takes place across a short six months.

Having Tessa, Jem and Clary all be talking at the same time was incredible. Jem stealing Church was hilarious and was such a perfect plot aspect. Hearing that Te
ssa and Jem were headed to LA made me super excited, because it means that they're most likely going to play a part in The Dark Artifices!!!!!

Overall, I absolutely loved this book. I thought it was a great ending to the series and I was mostly happy with where my favourite characters ended up. I thought Clare has done an excellent job in her planning the writing the intricate details of all of her books and I can't wait to read more!!

Reading Slumps and Updates

First of all, apologies for my sustained absence recently... I've been super busy with the other aspects of my life and my blog was not my first priority, though I wish it could have been. I'm aiming to have more regular posts up soon. In other news:

Reading slumps suck. 

If you read regularly, then you know what I'm talking about. It's that feeling when you look at your book and you have absolutely no desire to pick it up, no matter how many good things you've heard about it or how much you know you'll enjoy it. You just can't read it.

Like I said before, I've been extremely busy lately, which has meant that my reading time has been minimal. Reading too much is partly why I was even busy in the first place; I should have put my reading books down and picked my text books up weeks ago. So it got to the point where every time I started reading, I felt guilty because I should have been doing something else. Eventually, I just didn't feel like reading because it didn't give me the same sense of joy and relaxation that I wanted it to, so I just didn't read.

This went on for about three weeks, in which I only read about half of a book. It would probably have continued until I was on holidays if it wasn't for the release of City of Heavenly Fire, which I purchased a few days ago and have been reading ever since. Which brings me to my next point.

If you've been following my blog since my first post, then you would have read that this year I was aiming to read fifty books. So far this year, I've read 14 books. This puts me six books behind schedule, which is upsetting. But I have recent;y bought several new books that I am super excited to read, and I will have a lot more free time over the coming weeks, so I can easily catch up those six books. My goal is to be back on track by the end of July, which means that over the next two months, I need to read fifteen books.

I've also put my 250 movie challenge on hold for the time being. I just haven't had enough time to get through them when I needed to, and I didn't want the challenge to feel like a chore. I wanted to expose myself to some more classic movies that I have never seen before, which I already have with the few that I have watched. Over the second half of the year I hope to revisit the list and cross a few more off, but I'm happy with the progress I've made even though I know I won't get through the whole 250.

I'm aiming to have weekly posts up again shortly, so stay tuned - if you're interested...